Dear Carol,
I am an Elementary School Physical Education Teacher(K-5). I have recently (last April) began running. I have done two marathons and countless other road races with varying amounts of success.

Recently I have come up with an idea of starting a Running Club at my Elementary School. The name of the school is Meadow Glens and we are located west of Chicago in Naperville, Illinois.

I have thought of a name and that name would be Fly Like An Eagle Running Club. Our mascot is the Eagle. But, that's as far as I've gotten. Several other teachers have said they would love to help and my principal is all for it.

Here are my questions. Do you know of any reading material or anything that could give me some advice on how to get this project started? Anything would be appreciated.

How do I get the word out? I would love this program to begin in either the fall or spring of next school year. Winter is bad in the Midwest. What legal issues do I need to work with? Is there a program somewhere out there that I can sort of use as a model?

Thank you so much for your help. If I'm talking to the wrong person I apologize. Please direct me another direction if possible. Thank you so much.

Dear Chris,
What a cool name for a club!

The best place to start is on our running programs page. Please visit kidsrunning.com/kraskprograms.html. There are lots of articles about school running programs, including some on how to get started.

You can go to a PTO meeting to get support and ask for parent volunteers.

We have a great Mileage Club at our elementary school. It runs in the fall and the spring at recess time. Kids can just play or they can participate in Mileage Club. They run as many half mile laps as they choose. The kids carry a card and get it punched each lap by parent volunteers. The parents tabulate the mileage and there an award schedule. Kids earn toe tokens, trophies, tees, and shoelaces for unning. The PTO funds this program and has bought items for the school. You can find out about purchasing the toe tokens and shoelaces on kidsrunning.com/krresources.html

I wouldn't worry too much about legal issues. You are a PE teacher and I'd assume the kids take gym at your school, but you can send a note home for permission from parents for kids to be in the club. Please write back with more questions.

Feel free to email the kid's editor at rwedit@rodale.com.